An Online Source for Taq Kisra / Arch of Ctesiphon Studies

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Documentary Film

The Persian-Dutch documentary maker Pejman Akbarzadeh, based in Amsterdam, is working on the first-ever film on Taq Kasra (also known as Arch of Ctesiphon). Taq Kasra is the world’s largest brickwork vault and it was the palace of Persian kings in the Sasanian era ( 224-651 AD).

During two dangerous travels to Iraq, Pejman has filmed the arch. He has also traveled to Germany, France, UK and the North America and interviewed prolific historians and archaeologists on the history of this ancient monument, among them: Ed Keall (University of Toronto), Vesta Sarkhosh-Curtis (British Museum), Touraj Daryaee (University of California), Ali Mozaffari (Alfred Deakin Institute, Melbourne), Mahmoud Mullakhalaf (UNESCO), etc.
Taq Kasra is considered a landmark in the history of architecture.

Pejman Akbarzadeh with Iraqi villagers during making the Taq Kasra documentary film, April 2017

Persian artifacts (Sasanian era), discovered around Taq Kasra in the 1920s and 1930s by German and American archaeologists, Metropolitan Museum, New York (Photo: Pejman Akbarzadeh)

The documentary will be finished in summer 2017. The 45-min. film features both archival and recently-found material around the site. The documentary maker is trying to re-introduce Taq Kasra to the world people through screening the documentary in various festivals around the world.Watch the trailer here